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Thursday, February 12, 2015

Aboriginal adoptees sue Ottawa for loss of culture, emotional trauma

By Chinta Puxley | The Canadian Press| February 9, 2015

Photo: The StarPhoenix, file photo

Almost
1,200 adoptees in Saskatchewan have filed a class-action lawsuit
seeking compensation for their loss of culture and emotional
trauma. Starting in the 1960s, thousands of aboriginal children were
taken from their homes by Canadian child welfare services and placed
with non-aboriginal families.

Aboriginals
who were adopted into white families during the so-called '60s Scoop
are suing the federal government for their loss of culture and emotional
trauma.
Almost 1,200 adoptees have filed a class-action lawsuit
in Saskatchewan seeking compensation from Ottawa for "cultural
genocide."

From the 1960s to the 1980s, thousands of aboriginal
children were taken from their homes by child-welfare services and
placed with non-aboriginal families, some in the United States. Many
consider the adoptions as an extension of residential schools, which
aimed to "take the Indian out of the child."
David Chartrand, who joined the lawsuit, was taken from his Manitoba family at the age of five and moved to Minnesota.

"They
wanted maids, butlers. They wanted slavery and to do it legally. We
just fit that criteria," said the 52-year-old Metis man. "I was made to
clean the house, be their slave, be the punching bag."
Chartrand
said Canada had a duty to protect him and others like him. Although he
returned to his home community of Camperville, Man., in his 20s, he lost
everything, he said.

"I lost my life, my childhood." he said. "We want to put it behind us so we can move on."

The
lawsuit, which was filed last month, is seeking unspecified damages for
everything from loss of identity to sexual and physical abuse. Regina
lawyer Tony Merchant said many of the children who were adopted weren't
in unsafe homes but were taken simply as another way to assimilate
aboriginal people.

"It was a part of taking red babies and trying to make them into white adults."

Having
been raised by a white family with no cultural support, many survivors
have struggled to reclaim their roots, Merchant said.

"They've just been lost from their culture."

People
who were part of the '60s Scoop have been calling for a formal apology
from Ottawa. They also want compensation for their experience, which
many argue was just as traumatic as that suffered by residential school
survivors. But while those who were sent to residential schools have had
a formal apology and have been able to participate in the Truth and
Reconciliation Commission, '60s Scoop adoptees haven't been formally
recognized.

Other lawsuits have been filed on behalf of adoptees. A
class-action lawsuit by some survivors in Ontario in 2009 is still
making its way through the courts.

Chartrand worries any
resolution to this lawsuit will come too late for many adoptees who are
aging and suffering from increasing ill health. For those adoptees who
ended up in prison or committed suicide, Chartrand said, any resolution
comes too late.

"As an Indian, you have a spirit. That spirit has to come back home."It's not about the money. It's about these kids that are dead out there."

60s Scoop Settlement

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To Veronica Brown

Veronica, we adult adoptees are thinking of you today and every day. We will be here when you need us. Your journey in the adopted life has begun, nothing can revoke that now, the damage cannot be undone. Be courageous, you have what no adoptee before you has had; a strong group of adult adoptees who know your story, who are behind you and will always be so.

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“…sometimes shocking, often an emotional read…this book is for individuals interested in the culture and history of the Native American Indian, but also on the reading lists of universities offering ethnic/culture/Native studies.”

“Well-researched and obviously a subject close to the heart of the authors/compilers, I found the extent of what can only be described as ‘child-snatching’ from the Native Americans quite staggering. It’s not something I was aware of before…”

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Did you know?

Good words

I agree with you on the caring of “orphans” – true orphans, not “paper orphans” as Kathryn Joyce describes in her book, The Child Catchers. The most important thing to remember, however, is that the orphan’s original identity and family connection and heritage must remain intact and available to him or her forever. This business of adoption – and I do mean the multi-billion-dollar, unregulated business of adoption – of wiping out the child’s original identity, falsifying birth records with the adopters’ names, altering facts such as place of birth, severing familial kinship, must stop … Immediately. And the outrageous injustices foisted upon adoptees and their families for the past 100 years must be addressed and righted. We are faced today with six to seven million people who were basically legally kidnapped, sold to the highest bidder, their identities falsified, and placed in a lifelong, imposed witness protection program for which there is no legal recourse. Then told by church officials, agency and government functionaries that they have no right to know who they are, to do genealogy or learn about important family medical history, or know the identity of or associate with blood relatives. This is how the Judeo-Christian society has interpreted “caring for orphans”, for it’s own selfish interests and greed. Starting with Georgia Tann, the woman charged with kidnapping and selling 5,000 children, most of whom were given to the rich and powerful who then colluded with her to “seal” adoptions and cover their nefarious activities (see, for example, Gov. Herbert Lehman, NY, 1935).

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